Thursday, June 30, 2011

Summer is here, and it can cause potential reception issue with your satellite TV reception. In fact it can also cause reception issue with your digital Spanish TV channels also, as shown by problems from last year.

Reception of UK TV by satellite is already tricky. Many UK TV channels require a "big" satellite dish, like the 2.4m Famaval satellite dishes from Portugal, as the signals that carry these UK TV channels are very weak.

An increase in heat and humidity can cause a drop in reception, as the signal is weakened by the humidity in the air.

This had a great affect on Spanish digital terrestrial TV last summer (2010). Many areas had a reduction in reception of their channels due to the heat, so many areas had to have repeater stations installed, and that relayed signals from the main mast to areas affected.

Unfortunately this "repeater" process cannot be done with UK satellite TV, and it may be a case whereby you may have to live with a early drop in signal reception and loss of channel in the hot summer....

But then, there are so many other things to go out and do in Spain on a hot summer night rather than watching Eastenders isn’t there...?

SES Astra are due to launch a new satellite. Astra 1N will launch on Friday 1st July 2011.
Astra 1N was designed to be placed at 19 eat, and provide new satellite capacity for Western Europe, like Spain, France and Germany. However, Astra have said that 1N will initially be deployed at 28 east, providing more satellite TV capacity for UK broadcasters like Sky, BBC and ITV and Freesat, and to help as a backup in case one of the existing satellites, Astra 2a, Astra 2b, or Astra 2D, fail.

But what does Astra 1N mean for watching UK TV in Spain? SES Astra have released a signal footprint map for this new satellite, but the map is focused on the UK, and does not show the full signal footprint that covers the rest of Europe.

However, an "unofficial" footprint map did appear for a short time on the Astra website.

The footprint map shows the signal reception when the satellite is at 28 east. If you move the footprint slightly east and slightly south, then you can see how it covers Spain and France and Germany, as it should do when 1N is deployed at 19 east.

As you can see there is a large area of Spain not covered by this footprint. However, is should be noted that the outermost line is the expected reception for a 1.25m dish. There is no indication of reception for larger 1.8m or 2.4m satellite dishes in Spain. But it looks like, i repeat looks like, reception of Astra 1N in Spain will be similar to that of AStra 2D that carries the main BBC channels. That will be a case of cross your fingers and wait and see.

But what could this mean for reception of channels.
Well nothing official has been said by anyone, either Astra, Sky, BBC or ITV or Five, or any of the other UK broadcasters. The idea is that this new satellite will be able to provide more capactity, and thus more channels.

However, there are lots of rumours going around.

One rumour is that the 8 ITV1 regions that currently require a sky card to view will move to Astra 1N. This may mean that those people receiving ITV1 on a small satellite dish with a Sky card will no longer be able to receive ITV1.

Another rumour is that channel Five and its sister channels Five USA and Five*. Five have always indicated that their channels, apart from Five HD, would eventually be free to air. And it may just be that with Astra 1N all Fives channels will go free to air. So, as mentioned for ITV1, this may mean that those people receiving Five on a small satellite dish with a Sky card will no longer be able to receive Five.

And there are rumours that this extra capacity will mean more HD channels...such as more HD channel from Channel 4, like E4 HD and More4HD being made available free to air. Or more BBC Sports streams being made available in HD, especially with the forthcoming London 2012 Olympics.

Some people have said that SES Astra wants more pan European coverage, not less, as this is better commercially (for their advertisers / broadcasters), and so the signals on new satllites will be stronger. This is incorrect, as SES Astra can actually charge a premium rate for a satellite beam that is area specific. Eurobird 1 is a Pan European signal footprint, and as such is relatively cheap for channels to be on there, which is why a lot of the "cheap" channels are on Eurobird and not Astra.

However, all this is rumour and speculation and nothing will be confirmed until the satellite actually launches, is tested, and is made operational.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

SkyGo is being rolled out by all Sky TV services (Sky Germany, Sky Italia etc).

You register certain devices (Ipads, phones etc) online via MYSky, and the you get the Sky channels you subscribe to on those registered devices only (a bit more advanced version of the SkyPlayer). The package will do away with Sky Player and Sky Mobile TV to create SkyGo.

Sky Go will be free to all of Sky TV's existing customers and should provide "flexible access" to Sky content across multiple devices (e.g. iPhone, iPad, PC and Mac). Non-Sky customers will also be given access (note: not until August), although you will have to stump up for a separate £14-£40 monthly subscription.The service launches July 6.

It will be available on XBox 360 and Fetch TV. Each home will only be entitled to register up to a maximum of two devices.

Available free to all Sky TV customers, Sky Go will provide flexible access to Sky content across multiple devices including the iPhone, iPad, PC and Mac. Launching on July 6 th , it brings together two existing services: Sky Player, Sky's online TV service, and Sky Mobile TV, the UK's largest mobile TV service, with these services rebranded as Sky Go . Offering even more value from the Sky subscription, this will allow customers to watch live linear channels in line with their subscription while on the move in the UK and Ireland.

Sky Go will give customers yet more control and choice over how, when and where they enjoy Sky. Each Sky home will be entitled to register up to two devices, through which they can enjoy access to live channels and selected on-demand content.

On mobile and tablet devices, customers will be able to access all five Sky Sports channels, ESPN and Sky News, with further channels to be added over time.

On laptops and computers customers will be able to access more than 30 live channels, including all five Sky Sports channels, Sky Movies, Sky News, Sky 1, Sky Atlantic, Sky Arts, MTV, Disney, G.O.LD, Nickelodeon, NatGeo, History, Eden and ESPN, supported by an extensive library of on-demand content.

Sky Go will be available from August to non-Sky TV customers, with monthly subscriptions priced from £15-£40. Sky will also remain available on Xbox and Fetch TV, but will rebrand simply as Sky (currently Sky Player).

Obviously it will have the same geoblocking as SkyPlayer does, so it will be of no use in Spain especially on Ipads and phones, and PC connection via UK VPN / proxy server only.

However, due to reception of UK satellite TV being sometimes "tricky", there are some extra frequency settings for some of the "free to air" main UK TV channels. Some ITV1 regions, Channel 4 and Channel Five are available on other frequencies. Sometime you may have to manually add these channels to your Sky box. And these are really the only "secret" and extra frequencies for Sky TV.

Haye vs Klitchko Boxing on Badr 26 east
Reports are that the bout will also be on Al Jazeera Sports on Badr at 26 East on frequency 12034 h 27500 3/4

UPDATE:
Watch the fight for Free on Sky!
Problems with Skys system means that throughout today The fight will now be available at no charge to all Sky customers (ie those with a subsscription) on Sunday 3 July - at 9am, 1pm and 7pm - on Sky Box Office 739 and in HD on channel 752

Friday, June 24, 2011

Well, many people think that the satellite signals are at their strongest in the summer.
Personally I notice little difference in the signals over the year.

However, there is an issue with the signal in the summer.

In the past few years this has affected both satellite TV and TDT TV in Spain.

One of the main reasons for losing your UK TV and Sky TV signals in Spain, is due to the heat and humidity.

The heat and humidity acts as a barrier and reduces the signals coming though the atmosphere.

Many afternoons this week, when the weather has been very hot and humid, I have noticed the weaker UK TV channels, those on the Astra 2D satellite horizontal frequencies like BBC2 England, have been pixilating much earlier than usual. This pixilation has been occurring at about 2pm.

However, on calmer cooler days, the channels have been performing as they should, with no pixilation at all.

So it may be worth noting that your big Portuguese satellite dish may well be perfectly aligned, and the LNB on it may be at the best skew setting, but even then there are some things, like the weather, that can still hamper reception of UK TV and Sky TV in Spain.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Many people are confused about whether they can receive free UK television in Spain. The subject of what UK channels you can receive is something we are always being asked. Terms such as free UK television in Spain, Freeview and Freesat are always cropping up so we shall explain it to you.

Many people, including satellite installers in Spain, get confused about Freeview and Freesat. If satellite TV installers are unable to get their terminology correct, then no wonder British expats on the Costa's in Spain are getting more and more confused about how to receive UK TV in Spain.

As British expats move to the warm coastal areas of southern Spain in the Mediterranean, they find it frustrating that they are not able to watch the UK television programmes such as BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5, or the other 100plus other UK TV channels, including Sports, movies and news, that are available to view for free. Although they try to watch local Spanish television channels, some feel the quality of programmes on Spanish TV is not that good as UK TV, they do not show many popular UK TV programmes like Coronation Street or Eastenders, and not all programmes are available in English, (although the switch to Digital Terrestrial Television - TDT - has meant a lot more UK and USA imported programmes are available in English.)

Receiving Freeview in Spain

Freeview is a free digital TV package that is available to people living in the UK. It is not, like many people say, available outside the UK especially Spain. You cannot receive Freeview in Spain. Freeview is a UK only digital television system that is transmitted from the land based television transmitter masts, like Emley Moor and Crystal Palace. The signals from these terrestrial transmitters are not strong enough to reach Spain.

Many UK TV channels are available on "free to air" satellite systems. British expats around Europe can watch their favourite UK TV channels for free via free to air satellite in Spain. Free to air means that there is no monthly subscription to pay, unlike the pay TV channels offered on satellite packages offered by Sky TV.

Receiving Freesat in Spain

Freesat is the name of a brand of satellite receivers designed to receive these free to air UK satellite television channels. You can also use a Sky digibox or any other digital satellite receiver to receive the free to air signals. A Sky digibox without a viewing card will still be able to receive BBC and ITV channels, and all the channels a Freesat receiver can receive.

You can receive many of the UK free to air TV channels by installing a small satellite dish and a digital satellite set top box. However, due to the frequencies used, the main UK TV channels such as BBC and ITV may not be available on these small satellite dishes, and therefore much larger satellite dishes will be required, from 1.8m to 2.4m.

It is worth noting that a Sky digibox without a Sky viewing card will receive the same channels as a standard Freesat digibox.

Both Sky digiboxes and Freesat digiboxes use the same satellite frequencies. So if you cannot receive BBC1 on a Sky box withoyour exisitng satellite dish, then you will not be able to receive BBC1 on your Freesat receiver with the same dish!

Spain does have its own version of Freeview, called Television Digital Terrestrial - TDT. Using a TDT set top box, you are able to receive around 30 digital Spanish television channels via your TV aerial on your roof. The digital aspect allows a much clearer picture than the old analogue TV system, and has the option to change the Spanish dubbing soundtrack on UK and USA imported programmes into the original version. It should also be noted that some UK "Freeview" set top boxes do not work in Spain correctly, as they are programmed for the UK TV service and not the TDT service.

So if an installer says that they are able to install a UK Freeview television system for you in Spain, ask them a few questions. As Freeview is a service received by a TV aerial, then why are they installing a satellite dish? Will you able to receive all the UK Freeview channels, like "Dave" and Sky Sports News, for free on their system, as many channels available for free on Freeview are in fact subscription only on satellite. Remember You cannot receive Freeview in Spain!

Monday, June 20, 2011

Someone has posted on an internet forum here in Spain a call they had to Sky Customer Services.

The caller asked if they could take my box to Spain and use it on holiday. Sky Customer Services said that it was illegal to use a Sky outside the UK and if found that that they ware using the box/card in Spain they would stop my card and no refund would be given.

My view of this is that mixed signals were given out by Sky CS.

If the box was part of a Sky UK discounted installation, then the box remains proprety of Sky for the first 12 months. After 12 months the Sky box becomes your property. You can do with it what you want.

If you buy the box from a dealer in Spain, the box is yours. Again you can do with it what you want.

There are NO restrictions on Sky box movement if the box is yours.
The Sky CS person is correct if the box you are talking about is in the 12 month new install agreement.
The Sky CS person is incorrect if the box you are talking about is outside the 12 month new install agreement, or if you paid for the box yourself.

Sky CS are renowned for incorrect and inaccurate information.

There are, as discussed around this site, restrictions on the use of Sky cards outside the UK and ROI. The cards always remain property of Sky. The only way for Sky to know a card is outside the UK and ROI is by you telling them your card number and that you are in Spain. They cannot trace it via the satellite signal. And there is no way for them to track if a Sky box is outside the UK and ROI.

These four satellites, and most other TV satellites, are in a geostationary orbit.

Geostationary orbits are useful because they cause a satellite to appear stationary with respect to a fixed point on the rotating Earth. This allows a fixed antenna or satellite dish to maintain a link with the satellite.

The satellite orbits in the direction of the Earth's rotation, at an altitude of 35,786 km (22,236 mi) above ground, producing an orbital period equal to the Earth's period of rotation,

These geostationary satellites are not totally "stationary", as they do appear to move in a figure of eight over a 24 hour period. However, this is hot the actual satellite themselves "wobbling". The satellites appear to move due to the earth’s spin, which is like a spinning top and has a slight wobble. This slight wobble can cause a drop in the signal reception strength in some fringe reception areas like the Costa Blanca and Spain.

It just so happens that his wobble occurs at night, which is a problem as that is the most popular time for watching TV!

Should the satellites actually drift out of their designated position, which is a 100km by 100km by 100km box in space they have onboard control systems that will move them back into position. Normal drift is corrected around once every month if needed.

But there are two times a year when there is a more significant drop in satellite signal strength in fringe reception areas like the Costa Blanca and Spain.

Around March and October time, the satellites are in "eclipse mode". This is when the satellites are unable to use their solar panels for power, as the earth is blocking the solar energy from the sun. At these times of year, the satellites can be in the earth’s shadow for over an hour. When this happens the satellites have to rely on their onboard battery backups, which, when the satellites switch over to them, there is a noticeable drop of about 5 or 10% in the output of the satellite and thus the signal appears to be weaker. Again this is an issue as it happens for a period of two weeks in March and October at around 10pm - 12am, when people are most likely to want to watch TV.

Friday, June 17, 2011

How to get Sky News on Freesat?
What is the Sky news Frequency on Freesat?

Freesat only includes a certain number of UK TV hcnanel in the Freesat channel list.

Some channels are missing.

So if you want to watch Sky News on a Freesat receiver, how do you do this, as Sky News is not on the Freesat Channel list.

On the Humax Freesat receiver, the most popular and probably the best Freesqat receiver for use in Spain, here is how to get Sky News on your Freesat receiver.

Menu
Setup
Manual Tune
Choose transponder with 12207 v
Search
Save

You now have Sky news in your "non freesat" mode EPG

To change back to the Freesat EPG
Menu
Settings
change STB Mode to Freesat

IF you are in Freesat mode, and want to watch Sky news ,then
Menu
Settings
change STB Mode to Non Freesat.
Choose Sky news from the list of "non freesat" channels.

This is beacause Freesat receivers have two modes: an offical Freesat mode, and a "non freesat" mode. The "non freesat mode" basically turnes the Freesat receiver in to a free to air receiver, allowing you access to all the free to air UK TV channels on the satellites, not just those free to air channels that are on the Freesat EPG.

An illegal Cardshare network was recently raided and closed down with several arrests.

The raid happened on the 9th June 2011, and involved a company in Cyprus who was providing access to Pay TV channels, from Sky, Nova and BFBS (British Forces Broadacsting Service) by using a crd sharing server, which uses the internet to unlock encrypted pay tv channels.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

If you have paid for a Sky box, and that box is not part of any Sky UK discount installation agreement, or subject to the 12 month new installation discount agreement telephone connection stipulation, or part of Sky multiroom, then the Sky box is yours and not Skys. You can do with it what you want and take it wherever you want. The are no restrictions on "non discounted" Sky boxes in or out of the UK, as they are not Skys property. They are your property.

There are restrictions on those boxes that are discounted by Sky, via their discounted UK installations, and on the cards themselves. But no restrictions on buying a nondiscounted Sky box.

Sky (UK, Italy, Germany etc) are one of the few that actually allow you to own your Sky box. Other broadcsaters, like Spains D+ rent the boxes, and there is a small charge in your monthly sub for this. So D+ boxes remain D+, not the clients. Which is why D+ receivers are hard to come by in other countries.

Doctor Who and Fawlty Towers will be made available to Europeans armed with an iPad from later this year, as the BBC begins the process of introducing its international iPlayer to overseas audiences.

Diehard BBC fans living in western Europe will have to pay somewhere under $10 (£6) a month – the fee is still to be decided – in return for a mix of contemporary and archive content on the Apple tablet, all of which will be in English.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

You will require two things to get Freesat TV in Spain:
A satellite dish
A Freesat receiver

Satellite Dishes for Freesat in Spain

The size of satellite dish you need for Freesat in Spain depends on where you are located in Spain and what channels you want to be able to watch in Spain.

In many areas a 1.8m satellite dish or a 2.4m satellite dish is required to receive the main UK TV channels along the Costa Blanca.

You can go for a smaller satellite dish, but your reception of the main UK TV channels, like BBC and ITV, will be limited.

Freesat Receivers in Spain

Freesat is only available on Freesat branded receivers.
Freesat is not available on Sky receivers.
Freesat receivers and Sky receivers use their own software.

The channels that you receive on Freesat receivers are "free to air" channels, ie channels you can receive for free with no viewing card or subscription.

A Sky box without a sky card gets the same free to air channels as a Freesat receiver does.

The best types of Freesat receivers to use in Spain are the Humax Foxsat Freesat range. These come in HD, and HD+ versions, the difference being the latter has a hard drive to allow recording of programmes.

Confusion

To confuse things, Freesat is actually the name of the EPG Programme Guide used on Freesat receivers. This EPG can actually be received on a small satellite dish, like an 80cm or 1m dish. I have even got the Freesat on a old Sky minidish here in Valencia!

But when I ask the Freesat EPG to go to a channel like BBC, then the BBC signal is on a different frequency (and satellite) to the EPG, which is not available on an 80cm dish.

So actually you can say that Freesat is available on a small 80cm dish in Spain, but the channels on Freesat still need a "big Portuguese" satellite dish to be able to receive those channels.

This simple confusion about what Freesat actually was and would provide in Spain, was even made by some "cowboy" satellite installers, jumping on the "bandwagon" for the launch of Freesat. They advertise that Freesat and UK TV would be available on a small 80cm satellite dish for most of Spain. Well as you can see, and as they found out, they were wrong, its just the Freesat EPG that is available on a small 80cm satellite dish, not the main UK channels.

I went to a number of people who had a "Freesat TV" satellite system installed, who were diappointed not to receive all the main UK TV hcannels on their small 80cm satellite dish, and who could no longer contact thier "satellite installer" as they had "done a runner" knowing that they had not got their facts straight about Freesat.

Freesat vs Freeview

Freesat allows access to the UK free to air channels via satellite.
Freeview is a TV system in the UK that provides free to air UK TV channels via a TV aerial.
Freeview is a UK ONLY service.
Freeview is not available in Spain - dispite some comapnies saying Freeview is available in Spain, adn even using the word "freeview" in their company name or in their advertising.

Many of these same companies also say you can get Freeview channels on Freesat. Which is incorrect. Some of the channels on Freeview in the UK are PAY channesl on satellite, and require a Sky satellite monthly subscription to watch them.

Similarly, a UK Freeview box, connected to a TV aerial in SPain will receive the SPanish Digital TV channels, and not the UK digital channels. Simplyy becasue we are in Spain, and the UK TV channels are not available via the terrestrial broadcasts system (ie TV aetrial on the roof) in Spain.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

These changes affect most Spanish TV reception across Spain and is part of Phase 2 of the digital switch over in Spain.

All channels on frequency / multiplex 66 have been moved and transferred over to new frequencies.

This has affected the following Spanish digital TV channels:

Teledeporte
Intereconomía
Veo7 TV

A rescan on your TDT set top box will need to be performed to make sure you can continue to receive these Spanish TV channels.

In some cases a call for a TV engineer / TV installer will be required, as your existing system may not be able to receive Teledeportes new frequency. This is especially true for community TV systems, where individual amplifier modules are installed.

Phase 2 of Spain’s digital switch over is aimed to free up the digital TV frequency spectrum between from 62 to 69. This is so these frequencies can be sold off to other telecoms companies, like mobile phone operators.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Sky HD users should not have any problems, as the Sky HD boxes will automatically update.

Some Freesat users may have to reset their Freesat HD boxes, or perform a Freesat scan.

Users of other "generic" HD receivers, will have to rescan the BBC HD frequency, ensuring their receivers work with the new DVBS2 transmision standard.

One of the BBC's principles is to ensure that we use the spectrum we have available to us in the most efficient way possible. This means that from time to time, as technology develops, we make changes to the way our services are broadcast to ensure we are making best use of this scarce resource.

We will shortly be making such a change to the satellite transponder that carries BBC One HD & BBC HD. The signal on this transponder is currently broadcast using a modulation scheme called "DVB-S". On 6 June we will be upgrading to a newer "DVB-S2" scheme. This is a more efficient way of operating the transponder and it creates more capacity from the same amount of spectrum. More spectral bang for our buck, if you like.

The change will mean different things to different people:

If you watch TV using Freeview or Virgin Media or can't currently view HD channels you will not be affected.

If you have Sky, you will not notice the change and won't have to do anything on or after 6 June.

If you have Freesat you may need to put your HD box or TV into standby for 30 seconds and then restart to continue to receive the two BBC HD channels. If the channels are still unavailable then carry out a 'freesat channel retune' or a 'first time installation'. Full instructions can be found in the manual for your box or TV. Further help with retuning can be found at www.freesat.co.uk.

If you have any other kind of satellite receiver, you will need to check that it is capable of receiving a DVB-S2 signal. If it can, then you can use the following parameters to tune manually into the services carried:

So maybe in the future, HD version of the MBC channels will be available on Badr at 26 east, which is available over most of Spain on an 80cm satellite dish.

These MBCs can be seen as an alternate to Sky TV in Spain. The SD versions of these MBC channels are free to air, show many programmes in English, and have a wide range of movies, action and drama programems from both the UK and USA.

Do not copy or use this blog on your own blog or website without permission.
The Sat and PC Guy is a Registered Trademark in Spain - Nombre Comercial 294.968(7). Use of "The Sat and PC Guy" or similar terms without permission, for any business, especially Satellite and TV related businesses, without permission is prohibited by Spanish Trademark legislation.